My First Impressions with a new SE Pro

[DavidRandolph]

Yesterday I finally got out with my new explorer pro. As I assembled it according to instructions I was not impressed with the construction. 1. I don't like the battery cover. Its just a piece of rubber with a screw holding it in one corner and you have to pull the bottom out to get the battery pack in and out. I think in time that the corner will break off. But yet I have not read about any issues from all the research I have done so I might be wrong and hope so. 2. I don't like the way the upper shaft is connected to the control box with the pull down clamp to secure it. As I swung it back and forth I noticed a slight rocking up inside. I did have it all the way inserted as the instructions stated. I have been an avid White's user and I feel the build is superior on their products. Also, and this has nothing to do with Mine-lab, I have only used a closed coil before, and it will slide over short stubble. This open double D coil gets caught numerous times in the short stubble requiring me to lift it and then proceed. Now for the good news! Over the years I have hunted in old house yards. My sister n law lives in the oldest house in town. (over a hundred years). Over the years i have hunted in her yard with my White's xlt and have recovered just a few old coins, a few wheat cents but no silver. Her house takes up most of the little lot that it sits on. The only yard left is a little patch of approx 20 by 35. So i thought this would be a good test of the explorer's capability that I have heard so many praise. To be honest I was not very confident that I would find anything at all. When I turned it on I left it in factory mode as Brice had said on a older post that i found. I did noise cancel but that was all. I put on the head phones that were included and was surprised how load the threshold was but I started swinging low and slow as I had read others say to do from the forum. I don't know what mode I was in at the time but I got a faint high pitched sound and looked at the screen and it showed 07 24. I don't quite get the depth gauge yet as it is does not give inches. I used pinpoint and made an x in the dirt. I then went and got my White's xlt and scanned the the spot, but no response, not even in all metal mode. So I dug and dug, checking with a mine-lab pin pointer. Nothing...so I dug some more...still nothing... turned the Se on and scanned the target again, and there it was. so I dug some more and then I got the pin pointer to sound off...I was excited to say the least, and then I saw it, a 1942 sliver quarter.I could not believe it!....I borrowed a tape measure from my sister n law and it measured just shy of 9 inches. I found a few more wheat pennies that i had missed with the XLT but that was all. I'm very happy with the results of the SE Pro. and would recommend it to anyone. The few complaints i have with the build still gnaw at me but with the depth that this machine gets, opens up many old sites that I still have access to that I thought had nothing left in them. I will report back when I hunt some of my old spots and let you know what I find. I also want to thank so many here for their feed back and their knowledge that they have shared over the many posts i have read. Also Im sorry for the long post and hope its ok.

 

[MNCoinhunter]

You'll learn to love it ... I can't wait to get out and hunt once this winter is finally over !

 

[MikeO]

Have patience the learning curve is a tad longer on the Explorer line. It is not your Whites machine and you will be rewarded taking your time and learning the tones and cursor movement.
It will take some in the field use to get to know what the machine is telling you.
As far as the rubber flap for the battery compartment it will be fine. I have opened and closed mine more then I care to remember in the 12+ year I have been using it and it is still fine.
The cam lock on the control housing which holds the upper shaft in will seem to have a little flexibility.That slight feeling of flexibility is normal. Just make sure the shaft is inserted all the way inside. The earlier Explorer XS's had some cam-lock issues with cracking but, that was addressed and will not be an issue with the SE line.
Congrats on the Silver Quarter.

 

[DavidRandolph]

I'm already in love with it! laughs.....and yes i will take the time to learn it..i did hear the sounds of the bagpipes in my head phones so i know it will be a learning curve. I'm so used to the low and stable tone of the whites I'm sure i will have to get use to it. I thinks it like beer, the first time i tasted it i hated it and someone told me its an acquired taste, so will this be. But its well worth the time invested if it will prove itself like it did yesterday.

 

[Big Fang Coin Biter]

By properly, I mean with the lower shaft cam lock down. I initially thought the cam lock went up. With the upper shaft fully inserted and the cam lock engaged, I make a tiny mark with permanent marker on the upper shaft where it goes into the housing. Then I check it once in a while to make sure it is not sliding out. I had one machine that I had to add a layer of packing tape (the thin plastic type) around the top of the upper shaft in order to keep it in place.

My first detector was an XLT. I only gave it a year though. I was discouraged with the depth I was getting, and all the fiddling I was doing trying to get depth. I was thrilled with the Explorer series. The easy setup and depth was amazing to me. No more fiddling! It was what I was looking for - oh yea and the deep goodies I was finding were really what I was looking for!! I did not have a hard time learning the machine, but I kept learning more each trip out. Just pay attention to what it is telling you. Check each tiny peep of a good signal.

I remember one signal in a park. It was so tiny and it seemed to have a null on both sides of it. A short 3-4 inch swing produced a Null-Peep-Null. Turned 90 deg. and it sounded the same. It took me probably three minutes to finally decide to dig. It was a seated dime down at around ten inches! I like to use the gain at basically default (around 7) that way shallow targets are loud and deep ones are quiet. Some folks max out the gain, which makes everything loud. Max gain has it's advantages but is not for me.

Your quarter find at 9 inches must have really been an Oh-Yea experience! Great find for sure. That sort of shifts the XLT to backup status for sure.

Continued good luck with your SE and HH - Robin

 

[deeponedge]

It honestly isn't much longer than other machines IF you keep the tinkering and experimenting with settings to a minimum...and it sounds like you are doing just that.

If I might share one bit advice I picked up years ago from Bryce...who I have the priviledge of hunting with....don't go back and forth between conductive and ferrous sounds. Just leave it set in in one or the other until you learn the machine.

The SE is the most sensitive of the explorers...so take your time and enjoy the rewards of learning it.

Again...nice hunt.

 

[wildherre]

You will get used to the flex especially when you find you don't have to flick it from side to side like you did the XLT.. For the open coil on stubble problem, use the 11" Tesoro cover over the Procoil or pick up a Sunray X-12 which has a choice of solid or open covers.. wildherre

 

[JAN1]

About the rubber top to the battery compartment.
I lost mine as it came loose but I found it again, so I put a small locking washer under the screw to make it larger, no problems since.

 

[Neil]

on the rubber battery compartment cover, I bought an extra years ago thinking I would eventually use it and I havent, never had one break.

on the wobble, one thing you can do is make sure the lower rod is fully left or right before you tighten the middle clamp. the lower rod will rotate left or right just a tad with the middle clamp loose(thats the clamp on the middle rod).

The explorers get very good depth and ID very good also at depth. Best of luck with it!

 

[DavidRandolph]

Thank you all for the encouragement and advice. Im going to some of my old spots on friday and will let you know how i did.

 

[valeria]

Hi David, I want to know what is the current situation on it.

 

[DavidRandolph]

Hi David, I want to know what is the current situation on it.

The current situation about the se pro is that i still have a lot to learn. Today for example it was very erratic, sounding off more than it should. i did a factory reset but it did not help. was very frustrating to say the least, then i remembered a post i read on here about sand and dirt getting between the cover and coil, so i took off the cover and it was loaded. Cleaned it off and all was fine again. Made a good fix for that. I siliconed the whole edge of the cover where dirt can get in. i'll let you know how that worked out. If it screws something up i can always just pull the flexible silicone back off.

 

[Doctorcoinz]

I like to dig some signals that give an iffy target id with my se pro , amazing depths can be got once you dig bad signals , I dug an 11 inch deep coin today , it had no target id just a little flutey tone.
Almost gave up on it but there at 11 inches was an old penny.this was with an 8 inch coil too..